Im extremely new to Blender and Im having problems with smoothing groups. I have found several different ways to achieve smoothing, but I don’t understand the different applications. I am using 2.49, and most every tut I have found is using 2.5 or higher. Is there any good 2.49 tuts out there that goes into details of the different applications of this tool?
Also, since Im having problems finding tuts for 2.49, can I open a higher version file there? The reason I ask is the program I am modeling for only recognizes 2.49, and no other version.
For finding older tutes I would suggest searching something like blender 2.4 tutorial (topic)
Meshes I think will still work for now (until bmesh in integrated) some other data may be
corrupted or cause blender to crash.
As for smoothing groups it’s just a set of faces that get smooth shading but not with faces
that aren’t in their group. It’s commonly used on game models to make the model less smooth
looking. Places like around the waist where the pants stop, or gloves that flair out a bit.
It’s nothing too complex creating a sphere and lowering its default settings a bit try assigning
some groups of faces to different smoothing groups. You may need to set the object to smooth
shading, I’m not very familiar with 2.49 or smoothing group usage in blender since I don’t do game
models anymore.
I think “smoothing groups” is being used rather loosely here. Smoothing groups aren’t an actual named feature in Blender; some people just use it to refer to groups of faces (usually conjoined) to which smooth shading is applied. It’s been a while since I’ve used 2.49b, but I don’t think it was any different from 2.5x really. To apply smooth or flat shading to an entire mesh, in object mode, you would click the appropriate button in the Buttons Window. To apply smooth or flat shading to particular faces, select those faces in edit mode, press SPACEBAR, and there should be two menu entries for “set smooth” and “set flat” or something along those lines.
Of course, you could always have vertex groups being utilized as smoothing groups just by assigning vertex groups and giving them certain smoothing settings, for convenience.